Sunday, February 17, 2008

Slip sliding away

2 hours of black label goodness yesterday. I threw them down with some good company in the form of Squirrel. We putted prety much all over town to the north and west hitting mostly pave trail until we got to a section out by the ice arena in Johnston that hadn't been plowed so we took an off route through some neighborhoods.

Early on we stopped by El Bait Shop for a quick brew apiece and then hit the road again. Met another friend Courtney that I'd ridden with on a few group rides last year also sitting at the Bait Shop. Seemed like he had plenty of good brew to keep him company as we headed back out. We took the Neil Smith up to the old Targhetto aka new Trestle to Trestle trail. This section of trail had some nasty ice and snow spots on it.

As I soon found out, no matter how wide the tires are, they don't grip well on ice unless you've got studs. I was clipping along around 15 or so across a pure ice spot. I can't remember if I was actually pedalling at that moment or not, but both tires decided to head due east whilst I was trying to maintain a northernly path. I went down pretty hard on my left hit and took a nice slide for a good 20 or so feet. Luckily I still had my right foot clipped in and kept ahold of the bike so I could pull it back to me and out of Squirrel's path. I'm sure I put a pretty good show on for the few people out walking their dog a little further up the path. Like any good guy, I jumped back up and mostly brushed it off even as I was wincing in pain and jumped back on the bike.

I know how these guys feel now...

Amazingly enough, I didn't have a scratch on my AmFib bibs where I went down. After that I seemed to spend more time chasing and following than riding next to Squirrel. Of course it could have just as much to do with the fact that I'm way out of shape as well.... I prefer to blame it on the injury!

We spent the next hour or so working our way up through Johnston and then back down through Clive and West Des Moines on various trails before hitting the home stretch. By the time we got to the Wal-Mart on 73rd I was running out of gas and the head wind didn't help. Squirrel pulled out to a small lead and I just kept pushing away as good as I could without blowing up. We got back to his place and cooled down a bit while hanging out with his wife and daughter.

I'm looking forward with a lsight bit of trepidation to this weekend's hundy. Here are the details if you want to show up for some fun: Meet @ Dahl's on Hickman & 156th @ 6am for some grub, leave 7am for the ride. See ya there:)